JCE’s FreeStyle Street Basketball (a free online game) is one of those titles that you simply have to dive into to truly understand why I blew way too many hours of my holiday break glued to a PC. When I told my bud Terry Lewis, editor-in-chief of The Other View, that I was playing a cell-shaded, anime-styled MMO b-ball game, the first thing that came to his mind was a video game version of Slam Dunk. He would’ve been correct except that FreeStyle Street Basketball is incredibly enjoyable whereas the anime most definitely is not.

FreeStyle Street Basketball immediately draws you into its take on pick up basketball culture thanks to a hip hop and funk soundtrack that fires up and keeps you bouncing as soon as you hit the home screen. The first task? Create a character. You can choose a guard (which excels at dribbling, passing, and outside shooting, but lacks physicality), center (which is skilled in rebounding, blocking, and the inside game), and forward (a well-round character–the Mario in Super Mario Bros. 2, if you will).

Three male and two female body types are available, as well as multiple skin colors, and heights/weights. Unfortunately, you don’t have much control over the fine detail in these early stages; as you adjust your height, the weight is automatically adjusted (as well as your default attributes). All freshly created characters wear the same tee/shorts/sneaker combination, but you can tweak the color of the shirt.

After your character is created you’re encouraged to venture into Tutorial mode. I’d recommend this, too, for three reasons. Firstly, you can get a lay of the controls before venturing into multiplayer online mode where the action can get too fast and too furious for the uninitiated. Secondly, you can earn experience points that will allow you to level up (I came out of the tutorial at level 3, without finishing all of the tasks/challenges). Thirdly, the points earned can be used to purchase new gear and special moves that can help improve your game (more on that, shortly).

The arrow keys control your character’s movement, while the familiar WASD keys execute the various b-ball moves depending on whether you’re on offense or defense. W allows you to apply hard defense and box out. A is used for driving to the hoop. S passes and steals. D shoots, block, grabs rebounds, and performs tip ins. V shifts the camera angle.

The game controls remarkably well even for someone like me that has much disdain for keyboard gaming (despite that, I still lament the game’s lack of USB controller support). The animation is fluid; watching the cell-shaded ballers shoot, run, rebound, and generally mix it up on the hardwood looks very much like a cartoon. Thankfully, it doesn’t demand high-end hardware: I’ve been balling using an Acer AspireRevo R3610-U9012 nettop with a 1.6-GHz Intel dual core Atom processor and Nvidia GeForce 9400 GPU.

Leveling is done in the traditional MMO fashion–by grinding. Instead of dungeon crawling, you hoop it up in several different environments ranging from a street to a school yard. XP can be used to train (for example you may want to work on your rebounding, so you’ll pour some of the XP ito that) or used to purchase clothing, accessories, tats, hats, sneakers, and other gear that not only look cool and give your character personality, but ups their game as well.

A pair of new sneakers, for example, may cost 1,000 points, but once purchased, you can gain, say, +5 to running speed and jumping by shelling out some additional points. Certain items, typically the coolest gear available, can only be purchased with GKash, in-game currency you purchase with real world dollars. Warning: some items are glorified rentals that expire after a certain amount of time. Thankfully, I’ve only seen one such item, and the fact that it wasn’t a permanent addition was clearly stated.

At level 15, “sub-classes” become available. A guard can specialize in the point or shooting positions, and a forward can walk the path of small or power. Centers, like in pro basketball, only have a single position, and simply continue to grow more powerful as you level.

FreeStyle Street Basektball lets you play in 1-on-1, 2-on-2, and 3-on-3 matches both in single player and multiplayer modes. If you’re a stat-a-holic, you’ll be happy to know that the game keeps tracks of your points, assists, blocks, steals, and more as you play with others online.

As with my review of Dungeon Fighter Online, the review of FreeStyle Street Basketball will be an ever-changing document as new items and features are added to the game. It’s remarkably fun, especially if you play with a group of friends and create your own private room (shockingly, anonymous gamers can be quite douchey if you aren’t playing at the top of your game). If you’re looking for a lighthearted game of hoop that doesn’t adhere to the strict NBA rules, FreeStyle Street Basketball won’t disappoint.